Government nonchallant attitude towards health sector has been blamed for the country’s high dependence on imported drugs and vaccines.
The former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Dr. Olumide Akintayo said the lack of investment in Research and Development in drug and vaccine production has made the country vulnerable.
Akintayo in an exclusive chat with NewsSpecng however said the current leadership of the Ministry of Health lacks the capacity to attract investment into the sector.
Akintayo who is also the Chairman, Assembly of Health Care Professional Associations said, “A few days ago, I was asked when should we begin to see local manufacture of Covid-19 vaccine, I said of course that would be right as other countries have invested through their multi-national firms. Look in America, the Trump administration gave almost a billion dollar to some of the companies to carry out Research and Development to develop this Covid-19 vaccines that you are talking about.
“The UK government has advanced almost 500 million pounds within that neighbourhood to Oxford, Astra and other groups to do that.
“What has government done here? Governemnt is deceiving itself that it has given N200 billion CBN support fund to the whole of the health sector. So the totality of N200 billion cannot carry out R & D for one month.
“So the fund are grossly insufficient. Infact, the protocol is that a country that spends money on R&D is entitled to enjoy the benefit of that patent on interrupted for at least ten years.”
The former PSN boss also added, “So, even when you talk about local company manufacturing, what we do is actually partial manufacturing.”
He added further, “a country that depends extensively on import, listen to me is very very vulnerable on the long term to its enemy. Actually, it creates serious mortality.”
Akintayo noted that he has consistently in the last 35 years hammering it to the government that the “real drug scurge is our inability to manufacture drugs locally.”
“How did we get to a level whereby we are rated 187 out of 191 health systems by the World Health Organisation. A country that had facilities, specifically in the University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital UCH, was once rated as one of the top five facilities in the whole of the Commomwealth. The Saudi families were coming all the way from Riyadh
to Ibadan to access health care and then all of a sudden everything collapsed and government have not been bold enough to attempt to rescue the remminant of health care, he explained.
